This page lists all of the frequently asked questions (and their answers), as entered into the system by the market managers. If you have a question not answered here, please contact one of the managers -- their contact information should appear elsewhere on these pages.

And here are some answers:

Is Membership required to make a purchase through the Cooperative?

While our online market is reserved for our members, you are able to make two trial orders to test the market. After your third order you will be auto-charged $50 for a subscription annual shopper membership. You do not have to be a Member of the Cooperative shop in our retail store, however most items are marked up a small percentage.

These surcharge monies will simply go to pay but a portion of Federal Income Tax the Cooperative will be liable for with all non-members using our service. Wouldn’t you feel better with us using that money right here in Central Florida to create more jobs?

Become an Annual Shopping Member for $50 a year.
Benefits include:
Access to Online Market
Member Pricing

Owners are responsible for the following:
-Minimum annual purchase of $1500 (equivalent to $29/week)
-Minimum 4 hours of volunteering per quarter (may opt-out for $50 per quarter)
-Annual meeting attendance or review minutes and vote within two weeks of meeting

Will I have to buy vegetables I do not want?

Nope! Homegrown Co-op lets you order exactly what you want, in the quantities you need, from the farms of your choice.

This is very different from other co-ops, buying clubs, or Community Supported Agriculture projects where everyone gets the same box of stuff, and you don’t know what you’re getting until you get it.

This said, we do offer Season’s Selection option, great for those with an adventurous palette and limited time to browse the full selection. You can order a Small, Medium or Large Season’s Selection within seconds to ensure the freshest seasonal produce is ready for you at pick up.

For those with picky tastes and specific recipes you are sourcing for, you’ll want to browse our full availability of seasonal produce, animal products, bulk items, and artisan goods available for purchase through our website.

Here are the steps to ordering
1. Click “Sign In” at the top of the page. Here you can create an account.
2. Click “The Market” at the top of the page. This will bring you to our online market page.
3. At this point you can look through all of our products and click the shopping cart icon on the right hand side of the products to add them to your cart.
4. There is no minimum or maximum, so add as much or as little as you’d like.
5. Once you are finished shopping, select which day you would like to pick up your order.
5. Make sure you submit your order completely and you get a confirmation email. You will get two trial orders before you are charged the $50 subscription membership fee.

When/How do I pay?

Payment is taken at the time of pick up. This is done because many times their will be changes to your final invoice total due to price adjustments for items ordered that are priced and sold by the pound.

Cash and check payments are preferred. Visa, Discover, American Express and Mastercard credit/debit payments are also accepted as well as EBT.

Please remember that once the order window closes, all orders are processed for harvest by our farmers, and you are obligated to pick up and pay for your order.

Why Support Local Farms?

Enhance your local economy: By purchasing produce and other items from local growers you are providing stability to your local economy through the support of local businesses.

Save natural resources: Buying locally makes you an invaluable link in the process of saving resources such as fossil fuels and packaging materials. Also, we are right here in your community so the expense of transportation and delivery is kept to a minimum.

Provide learning opportunities: Homegrown Co-op supporters provide member growers the means to help educate our community about the importance of sustainable agriculture.

Supporting a way of life: The number of small farms in the United States has decreased dramatically in the last decade. Please help us preserve an honest and worthy means of making a living.

I'm a Florida producer. How can I sell through this market?

First step. Create an Online Account with us through this website.

Second Step. If you have already created a customer account, simply go to Our Growers Scroll to the page bottom and click on the link ‘Join this Market’. Fill out the template questionnaire that appears and your business will be added into our system.

Third Step. After you’ve created a ‘grower’ page please contact info@homegrowncoop.org to obtain a copy of our formal producer application to get your approval started.

Please note that any farm or kitchen not Certified Organic will have to comply with our Production Standards and complete a physical site inspection with one of our qualified staff.

Once approved, you get to publish your profile and list your products for sale. We’ll start working together to promote and move your products.

Can I get home delivery?

No.

Homegrown Co-op has discontinued delivery services.

When will the Co-op serve my community?

As we complete our transition into our Orange Avenue facility, we will be seeking additional pick-up partners to grow our community network. If your business, church or community organization is interested to help bring local food to your neighborhood, please contact us at info@homegrowncoop.org to discuss Homegrown’s Pick-Up Partnership program.

Why do my dairy products or eggs have a "for pet use only" label?

Florida law prohibits the sale of certain items for human consumption without particular forms of processing. These may include:
- Dairy products which have not been pasteurized.
- Eggs which have not been soaked bleached
- Citrus fruits which have not been covered with wax.

It is illegal in Florida and many other states to sell raw milk as a human beverage because it can harbor pathogens such as Listeria and E. coli. Milk meant for people is required by “law” to undergo a heating process called pasteurization. Pasteurization kills all bacteria, good and bad.

While no law specifically forbids people from drinking raw milk, the US Food and Drug Administration does have a recently stated legal opinion that US Citizens have “No Generalized Right to Bodily and Physical Health” and also “No Right to Consume or Feed Children Any Particular Food.” {see Case 5:10-cv-04018-MWB Document 11-1 Filed 04/26/10}

What if I get a product that isn't fresh or doesn't match the product description?

It’s important that we receive feedback from you as soon as possible if you get an item that isn’t fresh or doesn’t match the product description (or is unsatisfactory in any way). We remedy your issue, and will forward your feedback to the farmer.

We also ask that you let us know if there are any errors in your order. We handle a lot of items each week, and sometime do make mistakes. Please let us know if you find that you’re missing items or have extra items when you get home from pick up.

In the occurrence of unsatisfactory or missing items, please email us at info@homegrowncoop.org.
Tell us the product that was unsatisfactory or missing, the name associated with your account, and any other details you can provide (why it was unsatisfactory). In most cases we will get you the correct product, credit your account, or replace the item for you.

How does Homegrown Co-op work with local producers?

Acting as the agent for Producer Members, the Homegrown Local Food Cooperative provides an easy-to-update Internet platform where qualified Florida producers can publicize and close sales of the products they have available for sale.

For some producers, we are an agent that facilitates farm gate sales of their products.

At no time does the Cooperative ever have title to any of the products, foods and services sold through our on-line marketplace. The products that go through our distribution system are owned either by the producer, or by the customer who purchases “title” to the property/product from the producer.

In approved arrangements a producer may use our central facility(s) to temporary store their products for sale and delivery to our Patron Members and guest customers.

How does the Co-op work for local buyers?

Acting as the agent for Patron Members, the Cooperative vets approved suppliers, oversees direct order(s) through our online market place, coordinates farm delivery logistics and facilitates the final delivery of products & services to our Patron Members and guest customers. We provide a transparent food system where each product found on our market place includes information about how, where and who grew and/or processed that food.

How does Homegrown validate and approve a farm which is not Certified Organic?

Prior to the commencement of sales, any farm or kitchen that is not Certified Organic or Certified Naturally Grown must be inspected by the Co-op’s Market Director, or another staff person familiar with organic growing practices and philosophy.

To protect the integrity of our community and market, the Cooperative reserves the right to verify the production claims and geographic production location of everything sold through our marketplace. Any farm not Certified Organic must be physically inspected by the Market Director and/or Standard’s Committee before final approval.

Additionally any farm or kitchen selling through Homegrown Co-op is subject to periodic inspection with 24 hour notice if there is reasonable suspicion concerning any health, safety or production standards violation(s). Health and Safety violations include any standards or specification outlined in your Cooperative Producer Agreement that go above and beyond the U.S. Government’s Certified Organic standards.

After a producer and their initial product(s) have been approved, the producer may add new products in subsequent months without having them approved in advance by the Standards Committee. However, the Standards Committee periodically reviews all products and may, at any time, question a producer about their compliance with our standards. Products that do not meet our standards may be removed from the Co-op’s Online Market by the Standard’s Committee.

Who is responsible for all the product listings I see for sale?

In some cases the Co-op staff is responsible for adding and attending to a producer’s listing, but for the most part, everything you see for sale at our website has been placed their by the person who created it, much like what you would expect at Etsy or Ebay.

Where's the bacon and local beer?

No Pork and No Alcohol are permitted as products, or as ingredients in finished products at this time due to a sponsorship arrangement between the Homegrown Co-op and Florida Hospital. Florida Hospital is owned and managed by Adventist Health Systems which is a Seventh Day Adventist religious affiliated organization adhering to strict kosher and many times vegan dietary standards.

The Homegrown Local Food Cooperative has NO religious affiliations, but respects the rights and beliefs of others as long as they do no harm to others. While under the financial support of this respected organization, the Co-op accepts these scientifically based health restrictions for the greater good of our community at large.

Are the prices more expensive than the grocery store?

People have their assumptions, but if you actually shop and compare, you will see that for most items available through Homegrown have prices on par with or better than “comparable” grocery stores options. Here’s why:

The difference between local food (organic and naturally grown) versus imported “conventionally” grown food is much like the difference between hand crafted fair trade goods, versus mass produced goods in a sweat shop scenario. What you’re getting may look similar, but the quality is severely sacrificed for quantity. In these large farms where you are getting cheaper produce, there are thousands and thousands of crops that are sprayed with pesticides daily instead of being carefully grown by the farmers, they can afford to charge very low prices for very low quality food because they have grown so much of it with extremely low quality chemicals used as food for the plants (remember, what the plant eats is what you’re eating when you eat the plant). All too often these farms employ immigrants and pay them slave labor wages, and then just discard of them once they get hurt since they were never “officially” employed by the farm. In small local farms, the farmers produce a significantly less amount of a crop than the larger farms, and they take great care of the crops feeding them nutritious food which is good for the person eating the food, and good for the earth. These farms pay their employees a living wage, and they also pay thousands of dollars a year to insurance companies incase their workers get hurt on the job.

The challenge in offering a price-comparable item with what you are used to seeing on these shelves has to do with origin. Consistently upon our research, corporate grocery outlets carry very few products which are both local and organic at once.

Another value the co-op offers your kitchen is freshness. Imported produce is typically harvested long before it is ripe, and on its way to the grocery store (which can take at least two weeks), the produce is gassed in order ripen it early and to prolong its shelf life. We deliver fresh produce from our producer members that same day as harvest. You are taking home vegetables and greens within hours of their cut and harvest. Innovative local products like Living Towers living lettuce varieties deliver a whole plant with its roots still attached. These items can live in your fridge and stay crispy for over two weeks! Compare that with over priced lettuce from a grocery store like Whole Foods where the California or Argentina source produced is a week or two old before hitting the display case.

The more the community commits to eating local, the more local farmers can actually support the volume that allows it to be competitive in comparison to local-non-organic and organic-non-local.